The University of Hawai‘i at Hilo Diversity Committee is pleased to announce our Spring 2017 call for proposals for the UH Hilo Diversity Funds. Information regarding the funding opportunity, as well as the application form, can be found here.

Proposals for Spring 2017 must be submitted by Dec. 1, 2016, 5:00 p.m.

University of Hawai‘i at Hilo Chancellor Don Straney is in Japan this week.

Seated in front of group from the Yokohama University of Pharmacy are Carolyn Ma, dean and associate professor at the UH Hilo College of Pharmacy, and Don Straney, chancellor. Location: Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Courtesy photos, click to enlarge.

UH Hilo holds an exchange agreement with Yokohama University. The agreement allows UH Hilo students to train with an approved licensed pharmacist in Japan, and in turn, students in Japan can come to UH Hilo to earn their academic requirements.

UH and the Tsuzuki Education Group entered a formal agreement on Nov. 1 to advance collaborative education and research.

UH President David Lassner participates in part of the signing ceremony.

University of Hawaiʻi President David Lassner, UH Hilo Chancellor Donald Straney, and more than 800 invited guests including educational leaders from Japan and Europe, Japanese government officials and representatives from Japanese industries, attended ceremonies in Japan for a formal collaborative agreement yesterday.

UH and the Tsuzuki Education Group entered a formal agreement on Nov. 1 to advance collaborative education and research. The Tsuzuki Education Group includes more than 20 private universities and colleges in multiple locations across Japan.

Through the agreement, any part of the UH System may build on the initial relationships developed by UH Hilo to expand Hawaiʻi-Japan student exchange programs with Tsuzuki campuses and explore compelling initiatives across a wide range of interests such as business, pharmacy, traditional medicine, disaster resilience, technology, volcanology and sustainability.

President Lassner signed the memorandum of understanding with Tsuzuki Chancellor Kimiko Tsuzuki at a ceremony in Fukuoka, Japan. The signing ceremony was a highlight of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Tsuzuki Educational Group’s founding.

“Besides our deep cultural and economic connections, both Hawaiʻi and Japan are island communities,” says Lassner. “We share many common challenges and opportunities to create a better future that we can address together through collaborations with our faculty and students.”

This new system-to-system partnership builds on agreements between UH Hilo and Tsuzuki including exchange programs with the Yokohama University of Pharmacy and Japan University of Economics.

Chancellor Straney is continuing to meet with Tsuzuki officials and campuses to explore further opportunities for collaboration for UH Hilo and other UH campuses.

The partnership is also a new chapter in the relationship between Hawaiʻi and Fukuoka, where the Tsuzuki Educational Group is based. Spearheaded by former Governor George Ariyoshi, whose father came from Fukuoka prefecture, the Hawaiʻi-Fukuoka partnership was established 35 years ago as Hawaiʻi’s first sister-state international relationship.

KTA Superstores is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Chairman and CEO Barry Taniguchi says they’ve lasted this many years because of their employees. I think it’s this feeling of ‘ohana and KTA’s dedication to caring for the communities they serve that has made them such a lasting and important business on Hawai‘i Island.

Some years back, researchers came up with the concept of “anchor organizations” that are considered foundations for community growth. They are generally non-profits, with the top anchors being higher education and medical facilities in most cities, especially those struggling with revitalization.

But anchor institutions can also include other long-standing institutions that operate from a foundational premise of caring for the communities they serve. Here on Hawai‘i Island, this includes long-standing banks, churches, community and commodity groups, museums and, I believe, our local supermarket chain, KTA Superstores.

These anchor institutions have a lot in common. They are businesses that have a stake in the health and well-being of our families and communities, have an economic impact, generate employment, have an identity that makes it improbable they will ever relocate, have highly skilled administrators and staff, and are considered some of the centers of culture.

The University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, which started as a vocational school in 1941, has its primary mission of education, but beyond that—as with KTA—it is a key engine of economic growth and revitalization of our island communities. This characteristic of an anchor institution is especially important in older communities such as ours struggling to keep up with a changing global economy.

One important component to KTA’s success is its ability to adapt to changing times, always with the foundational philosophy of caring and service to the community.

Koichi and Taniyo Taniguchi

When Koichi and Taniyo Taniguchi started their 500 square-foot grocery and dry-goods store in 1916, they had no idea it would one day be a six-store chain employing 800 people. KTA survived the tsunami of 1946 despite the business being completely destroyed; they reopened, converted to a supermarket, expanded to Kona, and then through the years to other locations across the island including Waimea and Waikoloa.

This concept of being of service to our island communities is not done in a vacuum. Consistently, the key to KTA’s success is knowing and then responding to the needs of our communities and then collaborating with others to provide the best service possible.

For example, today, Oct. 24, as I write this column, KTA Superstores is celebrating National Food Day. The national event’s goal is to inspire Americans to change their diets, and key to this is supermarkets across the country changing their food policies.

In the spirit of service on National Food Day, KTA is hosting events at three of their locations. KTA leadership has resolved to make changes in their own diets and to take action to solve food-related problems in our communities at the local, state, and national level. This means having “a vision” of food that is healthy, affordable, and produced with care for the environment and the people who grow, harvest, and serve it.

This is a perfect example of KTA’s leadership where our communities need it most: the health and wellbeing of our island’s people. This business model serves as an inspiration to all businesses on our island.